Henry middleton dinning



(No Model.)

H. M. DINNING.

v I SAS'H FASTBNER. 'No..54Z,998. v Patented July 23,1895;

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TO all whom it may concern.-

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY MIDDLETON DINNING, OF MONTREAL, CANADA.

SASH-FASTEN ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 542,998, dated July 23,1895.

Application filed January 15, 1894- Serial No. 497,013. (No model.)

Be it known that I, HENRY MIDDLETON DINNING, a subject of the Queen ofEngland, and a citizen of the Dominion of Canada, residing at Montreal,in the county of Hochelaga, in the Province of Quebec, Canada, haveinvented a certain new and useful Device for Releasing Oar-WindowSprings, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Thisinvention relates to an improvement in devices for withdrawing orreleasing the springs of car windows, blinds, 860.

The object of the present invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive,and efficient device applicable to any railway passengercar, whereby thesprings or catches which uphold car windows and blinds in raisedposition may be withdrawn separately or one at a time and eachindependently of the other from beneath the lower edge of such windowsash or blind for permitting the latter to be lowered, thus avoiding theinconvenience and annoyance incident to the deflection of said springsor catches by means of the finger or the'point of an umbrella or cane orother handy article. 7

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the courseof the subjoined description.

The invention consists in the combination, with a window-casing providedwith two or more grooves for the reception and guidance of the windowsash and blind or blinds and with two or more self acting springs orcatches adapted to rest normally in the path thereof, of atransversely-extending crankshaft provided with crank-arms extending inopposite directions therefrom and disposed in different planes tocorrespond with the planes in which the self-acting springs or catchesare located, and means whereby said crank-shaft may be manipulated forwithdrawing one or the other of said springs or catches from beneath orout of the path of the sash or blind, said springs or catches beingconnected with the crank-shaft in such manner that either one may beoperated independently of the other.

The inventionalso consists in certain novel features and details ofconstruction and arrangement of parts, as hereinafter fully described,illustrated in the drawings, and finally embodied in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of acar-window, looking from the interior of a car and showing a pair ofself-acting spring-catches attached to the casing, showing also thethumb-piece or finger-grip for operatin g the crank or rock shaft, thelatter, together with the connecting chains or links, being shown indotted lines. Fig. 2 is an irregular vertical section taken through thewindow-casing, showing the relative arran gement of the spring-catches,crank-shaft, and connections thereto. Fig. 3 is a detail view of thecrank-shaft and thumb-piece or finger-grip for operating the same, saidfigure being shown partly in'section to illustrate the connectionbetween the shank of 'the thumb-piece and the rock-shaft.

Similar numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in theseveral figures of the drawings.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, 1 designates a pair of theordinary and wellknown spring-catches employed in railwaycars for thepurpose of upholding the sashes and blinds of the numerous windows.These spring-catches are made usually from strips of flat spring-brass,being riveted at their lower ends within the grooves or rabbets formedin the adjacent inner faces of the Vertical sides of the casing,thenpp'er ends being bent inwardly toward and passing into recesses orapertures in the window casing or frame, thus forming horizontalshoulders and at the same time providing for the deflection of saidspring-catches inward against the easing and beyond or outside of thepath of the window sash and blind.

It will beunderstood, of course, that the grooves or rabbets in whichthe window sash and blind respectively move must necessarily be locatedin different vertical planes, and that, as a result, the spring-catcheswill also of necessity be arranged in correspondinglydifferent planes.The usual method of throwing said spring-catches out of the path of thewindow sash or-blind in order to lower the latter is to force thedesired catch inward by sirable, as where the spring is very stiff thefinger maybe bruised or injured in theattempt. In order to overcome thisdiificulty and to manipulate either the one or the other of saidspring-catches in an easy and convenient manner, I provide a shorttransverselyextending crank-shaft 2, which is preferably arranged justoutside of the side bar of the window frame or casing, to the inner faceof which the spring-catches are applied. This crank-shaft may besupported in bearings in any desired or preferred manner, and isprovided with two or more crank-arms 3, extend ing from oppositesidesthereof and in opposite directions, said crank-arms being formedpreferably integrally with their shaft and for the purposes of carryingout this invention, being disposed in different planes, or, moreaccurately speaking, in the same vertical plane with the respectivespring-catches with which theyare connected. 'lheconneetionsbetween thecrank-arms and the spring-catches may consist either of links 4 orchains 5, or both, as indicated in Fig. 2, so long as said connectionsare flexible, and thereby adapted to operate through their respectiveopenings or passages in the window frame or casing.

In order to facilitate the application of the herein-described devicethe crank-shaft is provided in its inner end or thatend which facestoward the interior of the ear with a square or polygonal socket, intowhich the shank 6 of the thumb-piece or finger-grip 7, having the samecross-sectional shape, is adapted to fit, thereby adapting thecrankshaft to turn with the thumb-piece or finger-grip. In order toretain the thumbpiece in place and prevent the withdrawal of its shankfrom engagement with the crank-shaft I provide a collar 8 surrounding areduced portion of the shank of the thumb-piece and screw orotherwisefasten said collar to the inner face or wall ofthe carspring-catches,either one of said springcatches may be deflected and withdrawn from thepath of its respective sash or blind for permitting the same to belowered. It will also be apparent that by locating the crank-arms indifferent planes upon the crankshaft or at different pointslongitudinally of said shaft,

so as to correspond with the different planes in which thespring-catches are arranged, a direct pull is given upon eachspring-catch, and each one of the catches is capable of being operatedindependently of the other.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, and desiredto be secured by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with the frame or cas ing of a car window and withtwo or more spring catches arranged within the path of the window sashand blind, of a crank shaft suitably mounted upon, or adjacent to thewindow frame or casing, said shaft being provided with crank armsextending inopposite directions therefrom and disposed in differentplanes or at different points 1ongitudi-' sitely extending cranksdisposed in different planes corresponding to the planes in which thespring catches are arranged, a thumb piece or finger grip adapted topass through the casing and having a squared or polygonal shank engaginga correspondingly formed socket in the adjacent end of the crank shaft,and a retaining collar surrounding a reduced portion of said shank andsecured in place by suitable fastening devices for preventingdisengagement between said shank and the crank shaft, substantially asand for the purpose specified.

HENRY MIDDLETON DINNING.

Witnesses:

ALLEN G. INeALLs, H. L. DINNING. I

